If not, then hear me out a little bit longer as I attempt to ‘twist’
your thinking in support of the ‘little plea’ of all citizens of Port
Elizabeth directed towards Transnet over the last more than 30 years.

That the manganese ore and oil tank farms are a dump,
depressing and an
eyesore is a given.

It is self evident that these installations cause pollution
and a huge
number of unnecessarily elevated cleaning bills.

Shell has been ‘playing’ at cleaning up the mess caused by
leakage of
fuel and oil into the harbour for months and months.

As supposedly ‘responsible corporate citizens’, Transnet
have NOT been
insisting that Shell clean up the leaks or shut down the storage
facility immediately.

Take the Algoa Bay Yacht Club building as an example; After
the 2006
fire a brand new building was built by the members of the yacht club.
It has been a scant 3 years that the new building has been in
operation. I dare you to go and have a look at the absolute mess that
the almost constant presence of manganese ore has wrought on this
magnificent building. The ONLY way to rid the building of the traces of
manganese ore is to repaint the club – after 3 years, bloody hell!

It is a wonder that Transet manage to collect any rental
from tenants given the manner in which they allow their operations to
negatively impact on their tenants.

The image below demonstrates the amount of oil that is floating on top
of the sea between the Dom Pedro Jetty and the existing sea boom.

You may say that it is great that the boom is there to stop oil
‘escaping’ and I will agree with you.

BUT, what happens to the oil when it combines with other pollution such
as manganese ore and sinks to the sea floor? The boom is not a curtain
and it certainly is not effective in conditions of chop and high wind.
I have dived to the bottom of the harbour and can assure you that it is
a scary dirty place – just placing your hand on the floor creates a
large cloud of muck that looks just like manganese ore.

It is for this reason alone that bodies such as PERCCI
and Ocean
Messengers need your moral and financial support.

If you would like to have your say
and ask Transet and organised
business, represented by PERCCI,
a question or two around this issue
then pop along to the public briefing session to discuss the
developments and progress of the project on 28 May at the Goldfields
Auditorium on the Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University‘s North
Campus. Presentations will be made by Krish Reddy, General Manager –
Group Planning Transnet and Annemarie van Jaarsveld, Economic
Development portfolio councillor – Nelson Mandela Bay
Municipality.